When a used HD I got is in 'idle'-- no activity going on-- it gives a click in some cycle it is going through.

I have used the HDD Low Level Format Tool to set up this unit.

Would HDD Scan analyze and/or repair the problem?

The disk runs quiet when running such as a movie file etc and the click
behavior seems to be looking for the next action.

You didn't provide any detailed info, even the drive model, but the blind suggestions can be either head parking (WD drives love that) or thermocalibration, but the latter usually doesn't happen too frequently.

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Could the drive be performing a background media scan or a "patrol seek"?

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The rascal in question is a Seagte bought used with 35k hours on it.
It's a Baracuda 500 GB # ST3500320AS Date code 0211

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

There is a lot of dangerous suggestions in that thread.
It's not even monkey with a grenade it's more like monkey with a bazooka

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clicking usually associated with inability of a drive to do correct seek operation. In your case it might indicate some weak spots on drive's media.
If you could post SMART attributes we might be able to judge about drive's conditions.

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ISTR that the information in the opening post came from the Ace Lab or SalvationData forum, probably the former. If you could elaborate on what you think is wrong with this information, I will consider amending my upcoming book accordingly.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

The "stuff" manipulations posted there may make a drive inoperable and even might damage information stored on the drive.
People who posted it do not understand the internal works of what they posted

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What should I put in my disclaimer? If I refer readers to this thread, all they will see is a person who calls himself Doomer making some unspecific statements regarding monkeys, grenades, bazookas and "stuff", whereas in that other thread they will see that Spildit has tested the procedure on his own inoperative drive and was able to return it to operational status.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Probably that you have no idea of what you suggesting to people, at least that will be true

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Transferring SMART data (getting it into print form) has always been difficult. I don't know how to get the reports into .txt well.

Can I just copy in what it says in the troubling elements from Crystal Disk Info?

I have removed the drive after doing a slow and seemingly awkward backup-- Ghost showed the bad sectors message constantly during the process. I did salvage the data to a different boot drive.

Delays in answering here seem to be related to getting my notifications of new posts.

CrystalDiskInfo has a Text Copy feature.

First go to Edit -> Copy Option and make your selections. Then go to Edit -> Copy. This will copy the disk information to the clipboard. Then open up NotePad or whichever word processor ships with your version of Windows, and choose Edit -> Paste (or Ctrl-V) to input the clipboard data, or simply paste the information into your next post. Use the forums's "Code" button to maintain the text formatting.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I remember having difficulty with your MHDD program doing this as well.

I have to reconnect the drive so will do that shortly.

There's copy and copy option and neither opens up to anything.

Three options are given plus an ASCII view and none open up to anything.

This device is going back into storage until a SMART program can be found with some sensible instructions.

Here is what I was going to do in the first place.

Everything is OK in Crystal Disk Info except:

Warning status on

Reallocated Sector Count 82/82
Current Pending Sector Count 100/100
Uncorrectable Sector Count 100/100

I seem too recall from other disks that when the sector counts are considered OK they are 200/200. This does not mean much to me.

We need to see raw values or full SMART
But these three attributes directly related to bad blocks on a drive, so possibly, something is not right with your drive.

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I don't think this old drive is smart capable.

I used an alternate program (Disk Sentinel) which prints easily but also would not give smart data.

The bad blocks are likely why the drive was put up for resale. My question here is are there tools available to accomplish a fix?

Otherwise I'll have to use for backup only. Crystal Disk Info gives this drive a rating of Caution. I have never see a rating from them in the red so to speak but their color code I've never seen explained at all.

If there was relocation due to a "simple" problem it is "OK" but if the problem was caused by "something else" you won't get rid of it easily and reliably.
P.S. if it is really 35'000 working hours, it has most probably reached EOL. It is still possible to squeeze some more life out of it but having refurbished thousands of them I would consider it 30 / 40% usable, unless doing some "magic" and reducing capacity accordingly (60-70% then). It is probably one of the latest 7200.10 put on the market before .11.